This interactive session introduces improve techniques for effective advocacy. Cyndie Chang and Michelle Sugihara, both attorneys and improv actors, will lead participatory and demonstrative exercises to provide tips and tricks for public speaking and trial skills. They will cover multi-tasking, thinking on your feet, listening, connecting with your audience, nonverbal cues, confidence, creativity, and storytelling. Improv training helps attorneys improve their courtroom and boardroom presence and strengthen the ability to respond to the unexpected. Improv is not about being “funny.” It is about being the moment, being authentic, and above all, being an effective communicator—skills all litigators must possess. Let’s have some fun!

With the pandemic, many courts loosened the rules requiring in-person testimony, and that change appears to be one that will remain with us. Learn the tips and tricks you need to know to make your remote testimony presentation go smoothly and effectively.

Join us as young lawyers share best practices for how to position yourself as an indispensable asset on any team when developing the medical case. This presentation includes tips as to effective review of records, identification of causation and damages issues, and organization of medical facts so as to be most useful to team members, experts, and the client.

Hear young lawyers discuss effective strategies for managing challenging plaintiffs – from missing records to sensitive injuries – and how to use the PFS intake process to efficiently cull meritless claims while working with an eye toward bellwether trials.

These speakers will discuss the use and authority of special masters in MDLs, a practice that is becoming increasingly prevalent. The panel will explore this trend and issues relating to special masters’ authority, the scope of their jurisdiction, and issues that have arisen in recent MDL practice.

Attendees will hear from both in-house and outside counsel about emerging issues facing medical device companies, including failure to report claims. They will address how outside lawyers can assist in-house counsel with identification of risk and training staff to avoid emerging issues becoming litigation.

Please join us for either a run or walk in the fresh air around the Riverside. Erik Snapp will lead the run and Carolyn Riggs will lead the walk. We will meet in the hotel lobby at 7:15 a.m.

The early bird gets the most out of this networking session. Get to know fellow early risers in the group over a cup of coffee. Rise, shine, caffeinate and connect!

In fiscal year 2023, the cost of some new drug applications will exceed $3.2 million. That investment is in addition to the extraordinary effort required to collect the efficacy and safety data required to support any NDA—efforts that often require many years, many researchers, many clinical trial participants, and hundreds of millions of dollars. The medical device PMA and 510(k) processes similarly require millions of dollars of investment. This session will discuss the NDA and PMA approval, and 510(k) clearance processes, focusing on how the tremendous efforts required can yield helpful defenses (e.g., preemption, labeling adequacy); and help attendees identify ways to translate those efforts into a jury-friendly defense that helps demonstrate the safety and efficacy of a defendant’s FDA-approved drug or device, or that a device is as safe and effective as an already marketed device.

When presenting former employees as witnesses for deposition or trial, lawyers are confronted with different considerations from dealing with current employees. This panel, through the use of both an instructive lecture and demonstration, will provide insight on both ethics and practical tips for presenting former employees as witnesses.

Sadly, there have been more than 10,000 incidents of violence and hostility against Asian Americans in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic. However, such incidents of hate are not new, for there is a long and little-known history of anti-Asian violence in this country. Moreover, the recent taunts about the "China virus" and "Kung Flu" is not the first time Asian Americans have been targeted over purported health concerns. Learn from a program that examines the history of anti-Asian violence and hostility through narration, reenactment of court proceedings, and historic photos. Asian Americans did not hesitate to fight for their rights in the courts, and these cases raised issues that were -- and still are -- important to all Americans.

Mindful of our impact, we understand that you may have alternative lunch plans due to pre-arranged client or colleague meetings.  To ensure an accurate count for lunch, reduce food waste, and guarantee your seat, please indicate if you will attend the networking lunch.

Join the Drug and Medical Device and Employment Law seminar attendees for lunch and networking opportunities that are second to none.

Professor Ciolino will provide an entertaining update on current developments in ethics, with an emphasis on topics of particular interest to Drug and Medical Device Lawyers, including third-party litigation funding issues, the state of the attorney/client privilege, and other hot button ethics concerns.

Bring your creativity and join us in making cards for Cardz for Kidz, an organization dedicated to uplifting kids, families, veterans, and others experiencing hardship. Connie Matteo, DRI member and corporate counsel for Pfizer Inc., will provide us with tips and tricks to make the cards extra special. There will be additional opportunities to make cards during the seminar.
Click here for details on DRI Cares

The National World War II Museum Tour

Time/Date: Thursday, May 4 at 3:00–5:00 p.m.
Tour Cost: $45.00 per person (includes $30.00 per person for the tour and $15.00 per person museum admission, a 50% discount)
Registration & Payment Deadline: April 21, 2023 (payment instructions via Venmo to follow via email - prompt payment is kindly requested)

Join your DRI colleagues and tour the Smithsonian-affiliated National World War II Museum. Located in downtown New Orleans, the Museum offers a compelling blend of immersive exhibits, multimedia experiences, an expansive collection of artifacts and thousands of personal accounts of World War II -- from industrial efforts on the home front to the combat experience of the American servicemember abroad.
The Museum is a hugely popular tourist destination but closes daily at 5 p.m. It is located approximately ¾ of a mile from the seminar. We will be meeting at the Museum’s entrance at the intersection of Magazine Street and Andrew Higgins Boulevard at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 4, and the tour will begin promptly at 3 p.m.
Sign Up for the WW II Museum Tour

New Orleans Jazz Museum

Time/Date: Thursday, May 4 at 3:00–4:00 p.m.
Tour Cost: $6.40 per person

The DRI Drug & Medical Device Seminar would like to invite you to visit the New Orleans Jazz Museum on May 4, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. Through dynamic interactive exhibits, multigenerational educational programming, research facilities and engaging musical performances, the music New Orleans made famous is explored in all its forms. Housed in the historic Old U.S. Mint, strategically located at the intersection of the French Quarter and the Frenchmen Street live music corridor, the New Orleans Jazz Museum is in the heart of the city’s vibrant music scene. Please contact Charissa Walker with any questions at charissa.walker@tuckerellis.com. Please plan to arrive 15 minutes early so that we can start promptly at 3:00 p.m.
Sign Up for the Jazz Museum Tour

NOLA Ghost Walking Tour

Time/Date: Thursday, May 4 at 3:30–5:30 p.m.
Tour Cost: $36.00 (we need at least 14 people to attend with a maximum of 25)

Please join us on Thursday, May 4 at 3:30 p.m. Central for a 2-hour haunted walking tour leaving from and returning to the seminar hotel. You might even get to snag a beverage or two (at your expense) along the way to enjoy while listening to tales of ghostly NOLA. Cost is only $36.00 but you must be signed up and paid no later than April 4, 2023 to ensure you have a spot. Payment and more information is included in the sign up link (access code to sign up: 374363).
Sign Up for the Ghost Walking Tour

New Orleans in a Glass: The History of Classic New Orleans Cocktails

Time/Date: Thursday, May 4 at 3:30–5:30 p.m.
Tour Cost: $50.00 to $60.00

Explore the history behind the cocktails that make New Orleans famous! Begin your experience with a welcome punch and a brief discussion of cocktails and their history in New Orleans. Then enjoy demonstrations of two New Orleans classic cocktails: the Sazerac and the Hurricane. Each of these drinks tells the visitor a bit more about New Orleans’ long history as both a cultural melting pot and center of drinking culture in America. Mocktail options can be provided for non-drinkers. Snacks will be served. Payment and more information are included in the sign up link.
Sign Up for the History of Classic New Orleans Cocktails

This topic will focus on what by now appear to be permanent shifts in juror perceptions on topics like government oversight, personal and corporate responsibility, risk, fairness, and other concepts central to juror deliberations, and the best ways to address them.

Join this panel discussion with heads of litigation at major drug and medical device companies, where they share their insights on managing mass tort cases, defending products against attacks from multiple sources, and winning strategies at trial and in reducing inventories.

Join one of the attorneys who worked on Daubert case, who will share insight on that case, from its beginning, to the impact it has had on the defense of product liability cases, to the renewed focus on it in light of the amendment of Federal Rule 702.